Citizens Climate Lobby Update: 7.16.10
NEW CCL GROUPS
Welcome, Anchorage and Salt Lake City. In the past two weeks, CCL Executive Director Mark Reynolds has led workshops to start groups in Alaska and Utah. We continue to press on with our campaign to get new chapters up and running. Each new group increases our ability to generate the political will needed to enact effective climate legislation. Want to start a chapter or know someone who might be interested? Contact us at ccl@citizensclimatelobby.org.
ON CAPITOL HILL
Last chance for cap-and-trade? With only three weeks left before the August recess, congressional observers say it’s do-or-die time for climate and energy legislation in the Senate. Politico offers this assessment. Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman are now offering a scaled-back version of their climate and energy bill that imposes a cap-and-trade system on utilities only. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) held a press conference this week to say that there’s no way to get the 60 votes needed to include cap-and-trade in an energy bill. Meanwhile, The Hill reports that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), author of the cap-and-trade bill passed by the House last summer, is saying he will offer provisions to limit carbon in conference committee if the a Senate energy bill fails to include such measures.
JULY CONFERENCE CALL
Forging alliances to solve problems. CCL’s July conference call featured Bill Shireman, president and CEO of Future 500, an organization that brings together global corporations and the “activists who tend to demonize them,” uniting these divergent groups to get behind certain policy solutions for sustainability. Shireman cited the example of the Rainforest Action Network coming together with Mitsubishi and convincing the corporate giant’s subsidiary to purchase only wood products that used lumber harvested in a sustainable manner. After Mitsubishi signed on, 400 other companies signed the pledge not to purchase products made from old-growth trees. This created more demand for lumber harvested in using sustainable practices, which motivated one of Canada’s leading lumber companies to harvest more wood in a way that protects old-growth forests. Shireman said that Future 500’s latest initiative is to get major corporations and environmental groups to sign on to a statement of principles on the need to put a fee on carbon and return the revenue to the people. Listen to Shireman on the July call here.
TAKE ACTION
Ask for meetings during August recess: CCL groups should request face-to-face meetings with representatives and senators during the summer recess (Aug. 9- Sept. 10). The purpose of these meetings will be to present our proposal on carbon fee and dividend and ask for their sponsorship of this proposal in the next Congress.
Invite to Aug. 7 conference call meeting. CCL groups are asked to use the Aug. 7 meeting as an outreach opportunity to invite new people and enroll them in becoming CCL members in your chapter. Start by making a list of people you’d like to invite and then set aside some time to call them.
Follow up with Hill meetings. CCL volunteers who met with congressional offices in Washington should send hand-written thank you notes to the people you met with and then follow up by phone and email about our requests.
ON THE CCL WEB SITE
Video from Lester Brown’s presentation: The CCL conference keynote address from Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute and author of “Plan B: 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization,” can now be viewed on our Web site here.
In the News: Don’t have time to search around for the latest important news related to climate change? Check our “In The News” section on the CCL home page each day for the must-reads of the day.
Wish you were there. Check out the wonderful slide show from CCL’s national conference on our home page.
CCL MEDIA
In San Diego: CCL volunteer Tim Kline had a letter to the editor published in the San Diego Union-Tribune under the heading “Climate bloopers.”
In Atlanta: CCL Communication Director Steve Valk had a letter to the editor published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution under the heading “Swift transition from fossil fuels the answer.”
In Solano and Napa: CCL volunteer Mark Altgelt had an oped published in the Times-Herald of Solano and Napa Counties under the heading “Climate legislation we can believe in.”
In New Jersey: CCL volunteer Joseph Robertson published a report on TheHotSpring.Net about CCL’s national conference in Washington.
ARTICLES WORTH READING
Climate Progress: Review of the must-read book, 'Merchants of Doubt.'
A look at Naomi Oreske’s book that details “How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming.”
Guardian: Last month was the hottest June recorded worldwide, figures show
The trend to a warmer world is now incontrovertible. According to NOAA, June was the 304th consecutive month with a combined global land and surface temperature above the 20th-century average.
Bloomberg: Scaled-Back Carbon Plan’s Prospects Slim, Senator Harkin Says
Scaling back legislation to cap carbon dioxide from power plants rather than most of the U.S. economy might not win enough votes for a new greenhouse gas law to pass the Senate this year, two senators said.
NY Times: British Panel Clears Scientists
A British panel on Wednesday exonerated the scientists caught up in the controversy known as Climategate of charges that they had manipulated their research to support preconceived ideas about global warming.
Mother Jones: Risky Business -- Can American Industry Adapt to Climate Change?
A special report on how the business community is looking at future risks and liabilities of climate change and how beaches are disappearing on the East Coast.
